Given that I had gone through a major purge of excess belongings in recent years, I didn't want to create more "stuff" that would clutter the house so I asked the other participants for suggestions on "creative" things I could do that wouldn't generate more "stuff" in my house. One of the suggestions that I felt most excited about was painting rocks and leaving them around my neighborhood. I went down to the beach and collected some rocks, picked up some paints at a local art store and got started. I painted the words: Peace, Love, Hope and Joy on the rocks and with the rocks that were too small for those words, I either painted smiley faces or flowers on them. My focus was on doing something creative that would shift MY energy. I had no idea how wide the ripples would go from there. I went out in the daytime when most of my neighbors were at work so that no one would know who was placing the rocks and I put about thirty or more on the streets closest to mine. The odd thing was that prior to this, Kino had started refusing to go on walks. Well, we would leash up and leave the house but after less than 5 minutes, he was dragging me back home with such force, you couldn't really call it a "walk." Interestingly, after I put the rocks out, I noticed that he would walk a little further . . . onto the streets where I had placed rocks. Inspired by this, I went to the beach to get more rocks. After painting them, I placed them on streets even further out from our house . . . and sure enough, Kino was suddenly willing to walk on those streets too.
I was very excited that "doing something creative" was having a such a positive impact on Kino.And then people started posting on our neighborhood email group about the rocks . . . Fellow dog parents were commenting on how much they enjoyed seeing the rocks when they were out walking their dogs and parents were commenting on how the rocks were the highlight for their toddlers when they were out for walks. People posted about their excitement when they came home from work and found a rock in front of their house. I never expected that kind of reaction and I was tickled to know that my attempt to shift MY energy was impacting so many others in a positive way.
Since I live in a vacation town, by the end of last summer most of the rocks had disappeared, as vacationers took them as souvenirs or because they knew something I didn't know . . . that many people take painted rocks and bring them to a new location and then post the pictures on line. Soon there were posts on our neighborhood email group about the missing rocks and how sad people were that they were gone . . . that they missed the cheer they brought our neighborhood. Not wanting my neighbors to be disappointed, down to the beach I went to collect more rocks, back to the art store for more paint . . . and my mission continued.
So far I have only been "caught" by one neighbor. She calls me the "Rock Fairy" now. :-) She was inspired to bring the idea to her school where she is a teacher. They had a rock painting project that was so successful, the principal decided next time they should extend it to all the classes in the elementary school. Again, I was surprised by how wide the ripple effect has gone on this small class project of mine.
It has been a beautiful reminder to me that no matter how small the effort, there is no cap on how great the impact can be. Even simple gestures like smiling at a stranger or letting a car merge onto a busy road from a side street can have the same ripple effects. We may never know how far the ripples will go but for me, I find joy in making the first effort. Since vacation season is winding down here, I've painted a new set of rocks and now that Kino isn't afraid to walk in our neighborhood, he'll be able to help me spread the love (and the joy and the peace and the hope). ;-)
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